Max Mayer

MAX MAYER was born on April 26, 1888 as the son of the master butcher ISRAEL MAYER and his wife BERTHA MAYER. His birthplace is probably Freiburg. With his wife, the saleswoman BERTHA MAYER, he had two children: Ernst (born July 12, 1922) and Marie-Luise (also Marlies, born February 6, 1926). The family lived at Bertoldstrasse 31, where the trained butcher also ran his butcher shop – which had been owned by the family since 1865. Andrea Brucher-Lembach writes in her book … like dogs to a piece of bread (source 6, p . 33ff.): Due to “its exposed location,” his business was “particularly exposed to the envy of competitors and therefore also a target for anti-Semitic propaganda.” Normally six to eight calves, eight to ten head of cattle and three to four muttons were slaughtered per week. Sales have declined since the boycott of Jewish businesses. For MAX MAYER, the financial situation became increasingly difficult, employees had to be paid, and the family was large. He was forced to sell the butcher shop to Hermann Begelsbacher on July 1, 1938. In the same year the family must have moved to Deutschordensstrasse 5.
MAX MAYER was arrested on October 22, 1940 from Friedrichstrasse 26 (today 52), where he was last registered in Freiburg, together with his wife BERTHA and his father ISRAEL MAYER and deported to the Gurs camp. From there, MAX MAYER was deported via the Drancy concentration camp on August 13, 1942 with convoy number 20 to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was murdered in Auschwitz – probably immediately after his arrival – at the age of 54. His wife BERTA had to suffer the same fate. His father ISRAEL MAYER died at the age of 81 in Rivesaltes, a subcamp of Gurs. His daughter Marlies and his son Ernst were able to survive the Holocaust.
A cousin of the children Marlies and Ernst from Israel visited the STOLPERSTEIN for MAX MAYER on Bertoldstrasse in 2013 together with her grandson and granddaughter. There the grandson said the Kaddish (funeral prayer) for him and his murdered relatives.